Program Statistics
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Litowitz Creative Writing Graduate Program
Degree Types: MFA+MA
This fully-funded MFA+MA in Creative Writing and English program offers intimate classes, the opportunity to pursue both creative and critical writing, and close mentorship by renowned faculty in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Our three-year curriculum gives students time to deepen both their creative writing and their study of literature. Students will receive support for three academic years (including two summers) to complete both degrees – an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English.
Drawing on innovative scholarship, deep immersion in process, and cross-pollination between critical and creative texts, students will complete book-length thesis projects of their own design, either within or across genres, and a substantial essay on literary texts. The program's small size and attentive faculty will develop students' sense of literary context, while encouraging them to pursue the distinctiveness of their projects.
In addition to their studies, students will be guided in the teaching of creative writing and, through summer editorial work at TriQuarterly.org, the editing of a literary journal.
Students will pursue their work on our beautiful Evanston campus, amid artists, filmmakers, scholars and public intellectuals, with easy access to the vibrant literary arts scene of Chicago.
Additional resources:
Program Contact
Contact Nathan Mead
Graduate Program Assistant
847-491-3341
Degree Requirements
The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in The Graduate School Policy Guide.
Course Requirements
| Course | Title |
|---|---|
| ENGLISH 403-0 | Writers' Studies in Literature (three units) |
| Five 400-level seminars in English | |
ENGLISH 410-0 | Introduction to Graduate Study |
Two 400-level English seminars focusing on pre-1800 literature | |
Two 400-level English seminars focusing on post-1800 literature | |
| One additional graduate seminar at the 300- or 400-level, in English or another department or program. 1 | |
| Six MFA workshops (ENGLISH 496-0, ENGLISH 497-0, or ENGLISH 498-0) | |
Four in the student’s home genre | |
One in a genre other than the student’s home genre | |
One in any genre | |
| ENGLISH 491-0 | Editorial Practicum |
| ENGLISH 571-0 | Teaching Creative Writing |
- 1
May be taken outside the English department with permission of Creative Writing DGS.
Other Degree Requirements
- First Year Review
- Satisfactory completion of an article-length literary critical essay by the late spring of year two. This 20-25 page capstone essay will typically be an expanded version of an essay written for an English Department graduate seminar, revised in response to comments from, and as appropriate in consultation with, the seminar instructor.
- Satisfactory completion of an MFA Thesis: the first draft of a book-length work of original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or mixed-genre work.